Installing Stock Investor Pro 4.0

There are two methods of installing the program: using the monthly CD, or using the Program/Data Install option available at AAII.com. The instructions for installing the program using the monthly CD have not changed and are not reviewed here; please skip down to the Automatic Updates section if you have upgraded via the CD. New instructions for installing version 4.0 via the Program/Data Install command at AAII.com are given in the next section.

Before downloading and installing the program, we suggest that you disable your antivirus software to prevent any installation problems or conflicts. After installing the program, you can re-activate it.

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Installing From AAII.com

To install Stock Investor Pro 4.0 from AAII.com, first go to the Stock Investor Pro downloads page located at: www.aaii.com/stock-investor-pro/downloads. You may be prompted to log in using either your 10-digit AAII member number, with no spaces, or personalized username and password. If you do not remember your member number, it can be found on your Stock Investor Pro or AAII Journal mailing label. If you have saved your Login Name and Password in the past, you will not be prompted to enter this information and will be taken directly to the Stock Investor Pro Downloads area.

From the downloads area, click on the Program/Data Install button to download the full program and weekly data update file. The full installation file is now named stockinvestorinstall.exe, whereas in version 3.7 it was named proinstall.exe. You may Run or Save the file, but it is highly recommended that you save the file first, preferably to your desktop. Keep in mind that the Program/Data Install file is approximately 66M in size and is intended for download by those using high-speed Internet connections such as cable, DSL, T1, or T3.

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‘Figure 1’

When the download process is complete, double-click on the stockinvestorinstall.exe file on your desktop. If you receive a prompt asking to allow the program to make changes to your computer, click Yes to proceed to the “InstallShield Wizard.” Windows XP users may be prompted to install Microsoft .NET Framework files. These files are necessary to make use of the new automatic update feature, so click Install if prompted. The downloading and installation of these files will take several minutes. You may also be prompted to restart your system after installing these .NET Framework files.

InstallShield Wizard

After double-clicking on the installation file, the InstallShield Wizard window will open. At the Welcome to Stock Investor Setup window, click Next to continue. Please read the Stock Investor User Agreement, and then click Yes to continue. On the next screen, you will be asked to verify the location you want Stock Investor installed on your computer. Click Next to use the default installation location, or click the Browse button to specify a different location. Next, you will be prompted to choose the folder for the program shortcuts within the Windows Start menu (AAII is the default folder). After you have chosen the folder name, click Next to continue. The final menu window before files are transferred displays a summary of the installation settings you have specified. If you are satisfied with the settings, click Next to start the file transfer process, which will take a few moments.

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‘Figure 2’

When the file transfers are complete, you will be asked if you would like a shortcut to the program placed on your desktop. We recommend selecting Yes to create desktop shortcuts for Stock Investor Pro 4.0, Stock Investor Pro 4.0 Utilities, and Stock Investor Pro 4.0 Help. Otherwise, click No to continue. You will be prompted to view the ReadMe file, which outlines any changes that have been made to the program since the last release. Click Yes to view the ReadMe file or click No to continue. When the installation process is complete, click Finish to start the program. You will see a series of windows as Stock Investor Utilities performs various database management operations, including reindexing of the database files and the loading of predefined data.

Lastly, the program will automatically recalculate the custom fields. When the custom fields are recalculated, Stock Investor Pro will open to Stock Notebook #1 – Untitled and you are ready to use the program.

Automatic Updates

AAII offers weekly data updates to subscribers. These files are typically available by Sunday morning (Central Time). One of the key new features of version 4.0 is the program’s ability to perform weekly updates automatically; users no longer need to visit AAII.com to manually download and install updates. Whenever you open Stock Investor Pro, the program will compare the date of the data you have installed to that of the data update file available online. If newer data is available, you will be prompted to choose between installing the newer data and continuing using the older data.

To update the program, first make sure that Stock Investor Utilities is not running on your system, then open Stock Investor Pro 4.0. The first time you open the program after the initial installation of version 4.0, you will be asked to enter your username and password. Enter the same name and password here that you have used to access updates at the Stock Investor Downloads page on AAII.com. If you want, you can disable the automatic updates feature by clicking the check box next to Disable Automatic Updates. However, we are no longer offering the stand-alone weekly updates; therefore, disabling the automatic updates is not recommended. To re-enable automatic updating, uncheck the box next to Disable Automatic Updates. After you enter your username and password, hit Enter or click Ok. The program will then take a moment to compare the date of the data you have installed on your system to that of the data available on the update server. If newer data is not available, the program will open.

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‘Figure 3’

Since the automatic update downloads files from the Internet, it requires an active Internet connection. If you are not connected to the Internet and attempt an automatic update, you will receive a message telling you to check your Internet connection or contact Technical Support.

If newer data is available, the Stock Investor Updater window will appear telling you the date of the data you have installed and the dates of the data updates that are available. For the latest data, click the radio button next to Current Data Update and click Update. If you want the latest month-end data (the data AAII uses to run its monthly stock screens), click the radio button next to Month-End Data Update and click Update. If you do not wish to update the data at this time, click Skip Update and the program will open. If you do not load the newer data and subsequently decide you want to install the update, you must close the Stock Investor program and restart it to trigger the automatic update.

If you choose to update your data, the updater will download the update file. This may take several minutes, depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Once the download is complete, there will be a period of inactivity before the update installation begins. Please be patient during this time. You may also receive a prompt asking you to allow the program to make changes to your computer. Click Yes to proceed. Once the update installation is complete, there will be another period of inactivity lasting approximately 30 seconds before the Stock Investor Utilities opens and performs a series of database management operations, including reindexing database files and installing predefined data.

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‘Figure 4’

Lastly, the program will automatically recalculate the custom fields. Once the recalculation is complete, the Stock Investor Pro program window will open to Stock Notebook #1 — Untitled and you are ready to begin using the software. At the bottom of the program window, you will see the weekly “data as of” date. It should correspond with the date of the update you downloaded and installed.

The American Association of Individual Investors is an independent, non-profit corporation formed for the purpose of assisting individuals in becoming effective managers of their own assets through programs of education, information and research.